Green
by 7Minutes
Summary: A study on Frex's hatred for Elphaba.


Title: Musings of a Munchkin  
Author: Lindsay S.  
Fandom: _Wicked_ (musical-verse)  
Rating: PG  
Disclaimer: Not mine. Gregory Maguire's. I'm just playing with them right now; I promise to give them back when I'm done.  
Summary: A study of Frex's hatred for Elphaba.  
Note: There are elements of both the book & the musical here, but since the idea of Fritz detesting Elphaba is based primarily in the musical, that's where it will be set.

Fritz has never been able to recover completely from the birth of his first daughter. Naturally, everyone assumed it was because of the unusual emerald hue of her skin. He was content with that. It was a simple explanation; most people kept their distance from the girl, and they seemed to sympathize with his desire to have nothing to do with her.

Of course, life is never that easily explained away.

He'd found out about his wife's activities two or three years into their marriage. Melena rarely carried on her affairs at home, afraid that her husband's shrewd eye would find the evidence she'd overlooked. Instead, she would sneak out at night, just after sunset. Frex had caught her returning one night when he'd arrived home early to a dark and empty house. As he was lighting some of the lamps, the door opened, and in stumbled Melena, drunk and giddy. Frex had seized her by the arm, demanding to know where she'd gone, but she'd wrenched herself out of his grip, nearly losing her balance as she did so, and sputtered a few angry words at him before retreating to their bedroom with a slam of the door.

In her fury, she hadn't noticed the bottle that fell from the folds of her dress. A bright label proclaimed the strange green liquid inside to be "Miracle Elixir."

Soon after, Melena became less enthusiastic about making love, not responding to his touch, his words, barely moving at all as he thrust into her. Her dispassionate response to his efforts left him feeling less than enthusiastic himself. And he found her attitude odd, because in the past his wife had always had a healthy sexual appetite. So either she'd had her fill or she was simply getting her meals elsewhere.

Frex never tried to follow her or find out who she was meeting, but he felt his suspicions were confirmed with the birth of Elphaba. Little green Elphaba. At first, he had been so aghast at her coloring that he had ran from the room, refusing to acknowledge the birth of his first child. He'd simply turned and ran, putting as much distance between himself and the little green abomination as he could. It was only later that he'd remembered the bottle, the odd green elixir. Lighting a candle, Frex retrieved the bottle he'd kept hidden from Melena since she dropped it that night, Frex had crept to the cradle where Elphaba lay sleeping and quietly laid the bottle flush against the baby's skin, which was the exact same shade of green. And that was the proof he was looking for. Without making a sound, Frex moved away from the cradle, rehid the bottle, & doused the light before climbing into bed, where he did not sleep.

Frex watched Elphaba grow with the detached feeling that you got watching a stranger's child play, for that was just what Elphaba was to him. He had no room in his heart for a bastard child, and a discolored one at that. One night, while pregnant with her second child, Melena had implored Frex to embrace their first daughter, and he had turned to her and hissed, "Why should I love a child that isn't mine?" If there had been any doubts about Elphaba's origins, they would have been removed with Melena's expression. Yes, she thought she was so careful and so clever, but she was just careless enough.

After giving birth to Nessarose and giving up her life in exchange for the little girl, Elphaba had tentatively approached him. Only five years old and struggling with the concept of death, she had asked her father in a very small voice why Melena wasn't waking up. Frex spun on her sharply and told her in a voice as cold as ice that it was Elphaba's fault her mother had died and Nessarose would never be able to stand. There was nonsense about chewing milkflowers to avoid another green child, and then Frez realized Elphaba was holding the little bottle he'd hidden away. In a voice as cold as ice, Frez told her to take it away, that it would remind her of everything that both she and Melena had made him suffer through.

It was the first time he'd spoken directly to Elphaba.

Years later, Elphaba would still sleep with the bottle under her pillow, for reasons she couldn't fathom other than to hold onto a piece of her mother. Frex would still look at his "daughter" with a contempt so deep he couldn't even bring a name to it. And so the two existed on separate planes, their lives intertwining only when absolutely necessary, and then they'd drift back to their mutual detestation, for each other and for themselves.

For in the end, Frex looked at Elphaba and saw how inadequate he really was. And he hated her for reminding him of it.

Date Started: 5 January 2005  
Date Completed: 5 January 2005


End file.
